yup, it’s snowing. pretty heavily, too.
i am so glad i don’t have to go out to work today or anything.

once i got the car cleaned off and moved out of the way of the snow plows, i got to come back inside and settle in with the early morning email and work.

hehe. not just a cup of coffee—that’s a whole canister my mom left me (can you believe she went out already this morning? yeah, by 8 am she was gone to church—in a coordinating wool outfit, too, mind you—while i was barely able to put sentences together still, nevermind a nice ensemble.).

sigh. this being young stuff is no good.
although i have to say, my habits are already changing. i dunno whether it’s the diference in daylight (it gets light an hour earlier here than at home), or just rubbing elbows with all these early birds, but last night i had to go to bed by 11pm (or risk falling out of the easy chair and breaking my neck) and i was AWAKE by 5:30 am this morning.and i felt good (just not like talking; i like quiet in the morning).

i don’t have that much new knitting to show you, but tesserae progresses nicely.

i’m almost to the heel.
over breakfast and talk radio this morning i added another couple of inches i think. being the capitol of new york state, albany is smallish, but mighty, and always a hotbed of politics. so the talk radio (and news in general) here is fast-paced, full of debate, and makes for very good listening.

right now there are some dirty, nasty conflicts going on between the governor and the senate majority leader, and at the same time, the constituency in a large, rather depressed area of the state has made its dissatisfaction with its elected senator known by ousting him in a recent vote. and the way things are going upstate industry, housing, and education, there is plenty more where that came from. there’s so much political activity going on in so many directions right now that it’s a lot like being a spectator at the coliseum.

so, if you listen with knitting in your hands, you are bound to look down at some point and realize that exciting news is good knit fodder. i’m gonna keep this up all week and see where it gets me.

and now we have these pretty, lace-filled glasses lined up along the sunny kitchen window sill.

it’s snowing . . . we are supposed to get a great big snowstorm today and tomorrow and it looks like the promise will be fulfilled. it’s a good day for knitting.
tonight we’re supposed to go out to dinner and a show, though; i dunno if that’s going to happen (personally i think we should rent some movies and make popcorn and stay home, but it’s not entirely up to me, hee-hee!).

yesterday we went to visit my great aunt tina who will turn 90 (ninety!!) in april. the first thing she said was “let’s see those shawls!”; i guess she had visited my blog and seen some of the recent work and was remembering when she used be able to crochet and knit (she like crochet better, but i think that if you get to be 90 years old you get a free pass on that).

i worked a bunch on the snow shawl last night but it doesn’t look different enough this morning to show you another picture. so instead, i took a photo of the new sock on the block

(darn, i need to remember to turn of that date stamp in the camera).
this is tesserae, a nice conservative dress sock, but not SO conservative that we can call it plain, or boring to knit.

i also started sock #2 of the violets rising pair, but there’s not enough happening yet to take photos.

ok, i also promised some new sock patterns today so i really need to get those into the shop (i conked out last night; hanging around with my “retired” mom is exhausting).

whoa. i’ve been a whirling dervish the last few days, which is why i’ve been AWOL (sorry!).

thursday, friday, and saturday i just put my head down and worked like dog from dawn to late night. not much knitting to show for it, but i got tons of computer work done; everything i wanted to get out before i left home was accomplished.

the test knitters are all settled in now with their snow shawl patterns and so far, so good i think (very little news from them and i consider no news to be good news in these matters).

and i met my deadline for the proposal which is a huge relief.
then i jumped in the car sunday morning and headed for albany with the laptop here, a pile of knitting, and some good books on my iPod (i’m listening to the pillars of the earth by ken follett).
i’m not a huge fan of the kind of thrillers that make up the major body of his work, but my friend debby recommended this one and so far i love it. it’s good and long (32 CDs), and there’s a sequel. so there’s plenty of reading to hunker down with there.

check it out: i even knit in the car for a bit on the way here. traffic was stopped dead for a while somewhere around buffalo due to an accident (which was horrible; i’ll spare you the details), so i took out my tesserae sock and knit a couple of repeats—about two inches worth.

i’d love to show you the pictures i took, but i realized halfway here that though i dutifully packed my camera and even thought to take some photos on the road, i forgot the cord that connects it to the computer. duh.

never fear; i do have pictures today. my mom has a camera that i’ve abscondedrelegated solely for my own use “borrowed” and can use while i’m here.

see how nicely we are settling in?
we watched the oscars last night (i think that is the first time i’ve ever watched the oscars, actually—weren’t the dresses lovely?), and i got another chart completed. just one more to go, then i start the edging.

you can really see the forest emerging in the fabric now, and i’m excited (i know. when am i NOT excited about knitting?)

though i didn’t do a whole lot of knitting at home at the end of the week, i did manage to finish one pavé sock before i left home, and make progress on two other socks which i’ll show you tomorrow.
i am totally in love.

this is the sock for me, alright. i like it so much that i would walk around with the just one on, but it’s a little chilly for that.

(and for those that have asked, chris says yes, she will be dyeing up a bunch of this colorway).

elsewhere is sock news, rachel, who agreed to test knit another new sock completed hers in record time and even mailed them to me so i could take photos.